Bangalore, Sept 27: Gurjinder Singh and Akashdeep Singh scored thrice each as Punjab raced to a 7-2 win against the Services in their concluding pool C league game and entered the quarter-finals of Hockey India’s second senior National men’s hockey championship, here on Thursday.
Punjab enter quarter-finals in Senior National Hockey
In a match that was twice interrupted by rains, Services, who needed only a draw to advance to the knock-out stage, failed to deliver despite goals by Lovepreet Singh (25th) and Sanwar Ali (54th) as Punjab notched their second win in the three-team pool.
Services, who finished with three points, had their chances while Punjab went on to dominate much of the match. Gurjinder put them ahead with a ninth minute penalty corner conversion only to see Services bounce back with an equalizer from Lovepreet who diverted a cross from Mukesh Lakra.
On change of ends, Punjab were trifle lucky to get their second goal after Gurjinder’s attempt from a 43rd minute penalty corner trickled over the goal-line off goalkeeper PT Rao’s pads and the stick of defender Rajesh Lakra whose robust tackle had resulted in the award.
The Services caught up a second time when Sanwar Ali found the mark from a penalty corner in the 54th before the floodgates opened as Akashdeep (58th, 66th, 70th), Gurjinder (62nd) and Satbir Singh (69th) struck for Punjab who thus completed a resounding win.
The pool originally had five teams, but Arunachal Pradesh did not turn up and Chattisgarh were expelled from the tournament earlier this week on disciplinary grounds.
The Services had beaten Jammu and Kashmir 18-0 while Punjab had won 12-1 against the same team. It meant the Services had a better goal-difference and a draw on Thursday would have put them in the quarter-finals.
On Pitch 2 at the MEG grounds, Chandigarh kept their hopes alive with a second win in three pool D outings, defeating Goa 14-2 while Jharkhand beat Uttarakhand 7-1 for their second success in as many matches.
The results:
Pool A: Puducherry 2 (Manthena 30; Jayaraj 43) drew with Bengal 2 (Asis Singh Sengar 38; Gurvinder Singh 65).
Pool B: Delhi 10 (Avatar Singh Mann 18, 52; Umesh 34, 44; Shyambir 46, 48; Lalit 32; Pawan Singh Chouhan 54) beat Mizoram 1 (Lalringheta 1st).
Andhra Pradesh 5 (Ramesh Krishnan 15, 33; Ramesh Setti 17; Sandeep Raju 30; Krishna Kishore 69) beat Himachal Pradesh 4 (Amit Lochab 13, 48; Sarabjeet Singh 23; Lakhvir Singh 70).
Pool C: Punjab 7 (Gurjinder Singh 9, 43, 62; Akashdeep Singh 58, 66, 70; Satbir Singh 68) beat Services 2 (Lovepreet Singh 25; Sanwar Ali 54).
Pool D: Jharkhand 7 (Ajitesh Roy 2, 34, 40, 46, 68; Anil Xaxa 41; Gainder Tigga 70) beat Uttarakhand 1 (Manoj Singh Rawat 27).
Chandigarh 14 (Deepanshu Bhargava 7, 16, 23; Raminder Singh 12, 53; Sandeep Singh 30, 66; Lakhwinder Singh 38, 51; Ravinder Singh 24; Harmanpreet Singh 32; Shahnawaz Alam 45; Lovedeep 60; Kulbhushan Vashisht 63) beat Goa 2 (Glen Prad 46, Dattesh Priolkar 70).
Pool F: Uttar Pradesh 24 (Chandan Singh 6, 13, 20, 42, 44, 51, 53; Jayakaran 14, 56, 57; Abhishek 16, 21, 22; Imran Khan 24, 59, 64; Mohd Amir Khan 26, 28, 49, 55, 66, 68, 69; Chauhan Singh 50) beat Tripura 0.
Pool H: Manipur 9 (Chittaranjan Singh 8, 46; Herojit Singh 17, 51, 68; Hera Singh 12; Gayan Enderjit 30; Jayanta Kumar Meitel 40; Abung Singh 55) beat Bihar 3 (Chotu Kumar 1; Brisha Bhengra 54, 66).
Tags: Hockey India, Indian Sports, Punjab, Senior National Hockey, Sports, Sports India
